Ran 4 miles as a warm-up and to contribute to my final 70-mile week. This morning was in the mid-60's and wet, a mixture of light ran and 100% humidity. Due to just a tad bit of soreness in my legs, I decided to run a conservative, yet firm race. The event advertises itself as a "fast race" with an overall decline of 100ft. However, I found it to be a much more challenging course than the 20k I ran earlier this month.
I did not use a watch to time and although the course had mile markers, the times were only posted at mile 1, 5, 9, and 12. Thus, I was pretty much forced to run by 100% feel.
Mile 1 split- 6:15 (very steep decline...was honestly trying to keep a 6:45 pace)
Miles 2-5 were all through rolling hills, yet definitely leaned more downhill. I just wanted to keep things around a 6:45 pace...again, forced to go by 100% feel.
Mile 5 split- 32:46 (take away mile 1, perhaps still a little too fast)
Miles 6-9 felt very comfortable. I made a decision in my mind to keep a conservative pace in and keep myself in position to possibly break 1:30 which seemed very do-able.
Mile 9 split- 1:00:48 (felt very positive about this split...still feeling comfortable)
Miles 9-12 were still moving through rolling hills. The slight lean downhill was beginnning to shift to a slight lean uphill. My energy level still felt strong and my hope was to remain in position to break 1:30. Mile 11 was mostly uphill, yet in my mind this was a positive thing (whatever goes up must eventually come back down)
Mile 12 split- 1:22:30 (legs a bit stiff, yet energy level still strong)
Quickly began crunching numbers in my head. Felt confident that a 1:30 was still within reach. Mile 12 began a slight decline which gave me confidence to turn it up a notch. However, half way into mile 12 came a very steep hill...uh-oh! It looked to be about a quarter mile, so I still felt there was a chance...but as it leveled out it was followed by another steep hill...dang! Just put my head down and kept going strong.
At this stage I realized the 1:30 wasn't going to happen, but still wanted to finish with an overall 7 min pace. Things eventually flattened out and I still had the energy to sprint the final 1/4 mile or so.
Mile 13.1 finish- 1:31:32 (still felt strong)
Overall, I felt good about the race. In hindsight, I definitely had it in me to break 1:30. A few things may have helped- a watch, or timed mile-markers, a quicker pace in miles 9-12 (it was hard to gage on my own), and a better sense of the course (I honestly thought I was in position for a strong finish...just didn't know much about that final hill). Also, felt good about finishing a full minute in front of a local runner who has been neck-to-neck with me in the past 3 or 4 races (beating me twice and me beating him by a few seconds once). Ended up in 11th place, 2nd in my age group. Also, my wife completed this race with a pace just over 10 minutes...huge accomplishment after having 6 children!
NB 903's- 83.5 miles
| 